Area maintains record low unemployment rate

JACKSONVILLE – Governor Rick Scott announced that the Jacksonville area added 10,500 new private-sector jobs in the past year, which brings the total number of new private-sector jobs created in Jacksonville to 125,100 since December 2010.

The area’s unemployment rate was 2.9 percent in November, which reflects a 0.7 percentage point drop over the same period a year ago. Statewide, Florida businesses created 23,000 new jobs in November. Since December 2010, when Scott took office, 1,673,500 new private-sector jobs were created in Florida.

In November, Clay County had a labor force of 106,306 and out of that number, 103,290 for an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent. According to data from the Florida Department Economic Opportunity, 3,016 Clay County residents were receiving unemployment compensation in November, which is an increase from October’s 2,973 workers who were receiving unemployment compensation.

Also in October, the local workforce was only slightly different. There were 106,879 workers in the labor force, of which, 103,906 were working. The unemployment rate was also a steady 2.8 percent.

To look back a year ago, Clay County had a 3.5 percent jobless rate in November 2017 and a smaller workforce. There were 105,307 workers in the Clay County labor force in October 2017, of which 101,650 held jobs. A total of 3,657 workers were receiving unemployment compensation.

The industry with the highest growth over the year in the Jacksonville area was education and health services with 3,100 new jobs. In November, Jacksonville had 25,914 job openings and of those, 7,588 were for high-skill, high-wage STEM jobs in November.

Florida’s November Employment Figures Released Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in November 2018, down 0.1 percentage point from the October 2018 rate, and down 0.6 percentage point from a year ago. There were 335,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10,256,000. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in November.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment was 8,873,000 in November 2018, an increase of 23,600 jobs (+0.3 percent) over the month. The state gained 241,600 jobs over the year, an increase of 2.8 percent. Nationally, the number of jobs rose 1.7 percent over the year.

With the exception of September 2017 when Hurricane Irma ripped through the state, Florida’s over-the-year job growth rate has exceeded the nation’s rate since May 2012.